The game has far fewer loopholes right now than at any time in my 3+ years on this site. There is much greater competition, and many more types of strategies with which one can field a winning team. That is my opinion, but I know that a lot of long-time owners agree with me.

Loopholes will always exist. The simple reason: players have 1 salary, but the "value" of those players is highly dependent on many variables such as park, era, era of competitors, salary cap, etc. Owners will always look for ways to get maximum value from each set of player. Those players whose "maximized value" is sufficiently greater than their salary will be used a lot and become "cookies." And those strategies that create that surplus value will be what you refer to as "loopholes."

Think of it as the "invisble hand" at work in the SIM.

What happens here (and I think the SIM developers are very good at this) is that they watch and listen and learn and see what those strategies are. Where player value has not been sufficiently captured in the salary, they adjust the salary, or tinker with the SIM algorithm.

(As an aside, I also don't agree at all that there are too many errors. It's way too early to ascertain the impact of this most recent update, but just looking at the number of errors in the progressives I'm involved in, errors are within a very reasonable range.)

Quote: Originally Posted By steve9781 on 10/19/2009Here is how WIS describes their game:

Welcome to SimLeague Baseball (SLB) from WhatIfSports.com, where you have the opportunity to build and manage a team of all-time greats as you compete against 23 other users in a full 162-game regular season schedule. Dream matchups from baseball lore come to life. Ruth vs. Clemens. Bonds vs. Koufax. Aaron vs. Johnson (the Big Train or Unit).

I guess on the surface it's correct, but what they don't tell you is there are all kinds of tricks and loopholes to exploit, and if you don't play along you'll NEVER win. EVERYONE that first comes here thinks this game is one thing ( a baseball sim) and is disapointed to find out that's incorrect. We live in 2009, and baseball is played a certain way. Think how much better it could be if we open up the database and allow people to win with all kinds of players, not the same cookies over and over. Maybe my expectations are the problem, but I just can't belive I'm out on an island on this one.

Try the theme leagues, Steve. Plenty of theme leagues where the game from 2009 is the way to play.

Just don't ignore that the game in 2009 is WAY different than how Ruth played it. It's really a different ballgame. How one judges the 'what if' factor between eras is up to them... but forcing Ed Walsh to pitch in a four-man rotation is as unrealistic as expecting Johan Santana to pitch in a three-man.

Good luck with the new SIM, and again, I encourage you to look in the theme leagues if you're really looking for modern-era rosters...

Quote: Originally Posted By steve9781 on 10/19/2009I personally think the fielding sucks, and the update makes it worse. Here's my opinion......

[snip]

4. You should be penalized for playing players at secondary positions. If T.Phillips spent most of the year in OF, then that's where he needs to play MOST of the time. If he played 20 games at 2b, then the more games over 20 he plays then his fielding starts to decrease. You don't get to go back and change history. If he was sooo amazing at 2B his real life team would have played him there more

Just my opinion

From the mouths of babes.

I know that secondary fielding stats do affect salary, but I wonder if Steve's suggestion above might be a better way to do it - if it's possible.

Quote: Originally Posted By thats_nice on 10/19/2009My advise is close your mouth and open your ears. It's a great life rule to follow. Until you're educated on a subject through experience or research shut up and listen to others. You'll learn alot! Continue reading the forums. ask questions (run a search first and see if the question has been asked already). Many on the site have helped me learn how the sim works. The good and the bad. But you'll never learn if you're busy giving opinion

Couldn't disagree more, and by posting my opinion I am asking questions. I'm encouraging people to show me the error of my ways, or why because of lack of experiance, I'm off base. Stating an opinion is the quickest way I know to get a real discussion started. It's a shame your parents taught you to be seen and not heard

I agree.. this is my sons monicer. I have been here since the salary structure was "pure", ie, it was based on actual the actual MLB salary structure and what IT rewarded. As a result OBP dominated. I won my first championship with three Christy Mathewson low BB starters.. called the Big Six Fix!

I never liked the idea of winning by "hiding" dominant players during the regular season... but I realized it required a great deal of managing as griz put it to make it work and for that I have respect. I honestly have less respect for the so called realism of having a team full of base stealers when that strategy has zero seeming relevance in the modern game. Back in "the day" you could take a 98 Shane Spencer and he would hit 60 jacks for you... talk about fatigue issues!

You can win in the sim with mutliple strategies now and you cannot ask for more.

As a Cardinal fan I dont find this years NLDS or the 2004 WS very "realistic" either .

I will close by saying there will always be so called loopholes because there are some super smart people on here.